Masayuki Fujio

藤尾 正行Minister of EducationIn office
22 July 1986 – 9 September 1986Prime MinisterYasuhiro NakasonePreceded byToshiki KaifuSucceeded byMasajuro ShiokawaMinister of LabourIn office
17 July 1980 – 30 November 1981Prime MinisterZenkō SuzukiPreceded byTakao FujinamiSucceeded byTakiichiro Hatsumura Personal detailsBorn(1917-01-01)1 January 1917
Tochigi Prefecture, JapanDied22 October 2006(2006-10-22) (aged 89)
Tokyo, JapanAlma materMeiji University

Masayuki Fujio (藤尾 正行 Fujio Masayuki, January 1, 1917 – October 22, 2006) was the Japanese Minister of Education, under the government of Yasuhiro Nakasone until 1986. He was a member of the right-wing Seiwa Seisaku Kenkyūkai faction of the Liberal Democratic Party, where he was described as being a "loyal vassal" to Takeo Fukuda, the founder of the faction.^[1]

In 1986, he was made Minister of Education by Prime Minister Nakasone, but he was soon fired by Nakasone after an interview with Bungei Shunju in which he made several controversial remarks about Japan's role in the Second Sino-Japanese War and World War II. In the interview, he questioned the criminality of the Nanjing Massacre, claiming "It is not murder under international law to kill in war".^[2] Further, he compared the Nanjing Massacre with the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and implied that if Japans war time actions were wrong then so were America's.

He died of pneumonia on October 22, 2006 at the age of 89.

References

Political offices
Preceded by Takao Fujinami	Minister of Labour 1980–1981	Succeeded by Takiichiro Hatsumura
Preceded by Toshiki Kaifu	Minister of Education 1986	Succeeded by Masajuro Shiokawa
Assembly seats
Preceded by Jitsuzo Tokuyasu	Chair, Cabinet Affairs Committee of the House of Representatives of Japan 1975–1976	Succeeded by Yoshimasa Sakamura
Preceded by Jujiro Tosaka	Chair, Education Committee of the House of Representatives of Japan 1976–1978	Succeeded by Shigeru Suganami
Party political offices
Preceded by Rokusuke Tanaka	Chairman of the Policy Research Council, Liberal Democratic Party 1983–1986	Succeeded by Masayoshi Ito